Food and the Olympics

People across the globe have been watching the Rio Olympics,
cheering on their local favorites and witnessing awe-inspiring
performances from the world's top athletes. Hosting viewing parties
for friends and family is a great way to share the excitement with
others. If you're running out of ideas for what to
serve, Australian Gourmet Traveller Magazine has 15 suggestions for Olympic viewing party
foods.

And if you're struggling to find new items to feed to your
friends and family, just think of how challenging it must be
to feed the over 18,000 athletes - with outsized
appetites - in the Olympic village. The amount of food used daily
is staggering to comprehend, and with all of that food there is
bound to be plenty of waste. But this year, a handful of celebrity
chefs and their associates have stepped in to use the
leftovers for a worthy cause.

Italian chef Massimo Bottura and Brazilian chef David
Hertz are using the surplus Olympic village food and turning it into nearly 5,000
meals per day for Rio's poorest and hungriest
citizens. The effort, called RefettoRio
Gastromotiva, is modeled after a similar project that the
chefs launched during the Milan Expo last year. The project "is
going to work only with ingredients that are about to be wasted ...
like ugly fruit and vegetables, or yoghurt that is going to be
wasted in two days if you don't buy it," Hertz told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation. He would like to see the initiative
carried on in future Olympic cities.